November 6, 2022
First, announcements:
Erin Foster Zsiga from Student Affairs wrote to share a message that was sent to students from Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) as they expand options for supporting student mental health and well-being. This message provides helpful information on support services and programs.
The Vice President of Equity and Inclusion Search Committee sent the following message. As you may know, Bates is currently searching for its next Vice President for Equity and Inclusion. Three candidates are currently scheduled to visit campus during the weeks of November 7 and 14. The search committee sincerely hopes that you will be able to attend the following open meetings. This is your opportunity to hear from and ask questions of each candidate.
Candidate 1 will present to faculty and staff on Wednesday, November 9, at 4:15 pm in Commons 221/222. Refreshments will be available.
Candidate 2 will present to faculty and staff on Monday, November 14, at 12:00 pm in Commons 221/222. (For this session, feel free to bring your lunch to 221/222. We will start promptly at 12 pm.)
Candidate 3 will present to faculty and staff on Tuesday, November 15, at 4:15 pm in Commons 221/222. Refreshments will be available.
We very much hope that most of you will be able to attend the on-campus sessions in person, but we will also make Zoom participation available for all three sessions. We ask that those of you who plan to attend these events (either in person or via Zoom) register in advance by clicking here. Please register no later than 5:00 pm on the day before each session. By registering, you will gain access to the candidates’ relevant materials, which we will ask that you keep confidential. We will also use your registration to assist us in soliciting feedback after the presentations.
Cary Gemmer Blake, the 2022 Community Giving Campaign co-chair, wrote to tell us the 2022 Community Giving Campaign kick off will begin Monday, November 7. All donations support our three partner organizations:
- United Way of Androscoggin County aims to increase the organized capacity of people in Androscoggin and Oxford Counties to care for one another by fighting for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in our community.
- Maine Share supports 40 member groups across the state who make sustainable change to advance social and environmental justice and to uplift arts and culture.
- Community Health Charities brings nonprofits, businesses, and communities together around a shared commitment to health and wellbeing by addressing the barriers to good health and equity, and creating resilient communities where everyone can thrive.
This year is one of particular urgency and need, and together we aim to raise $40,000 from 225 faculty and staff donors. You can make a gift to the Community Giving Campaign beginning Monday, November 7. through payroll deduction via Garnet Gateway. There are many designations and charities to choose from within each of the partner organizations.
We will send regular emails, updating you on progress towards our goals and awarding raffle prizes to donors. The United Way has a great incentives raffle for donors who make their gifts by Thursday, November 10. Attached is a list of the United Way’s donor incentives — make your gift early to win! Attached are slides detailing the campaign and the logistics of making a gift through Garnet Gateway.
Matt Von Vogt, AAA in Pettengill Hall, shared a link to the recording of AK Wright’s lecture, Black Queer and Trans Care Practices for a New World: Black Feminist Practices of Embodied Abolition. The lecture can be accessed using this link: https://video.bates.edu/media/t/1_edcsafvw/246637692
Tyler Harper wrote on behalf of the MLK Committee to remind us that MLK workshop proposals are due this Monday, November 7th. Proposals can be submitted through this form. As a reminder, our theme for this year is “Arts and Activism,” however your workshop is not required to speak to that theme. It may focus on any topic that is in the spirit of Dr. King’s work and legacy. If you have workshop ideas that you would like to discuss with me or another committee member, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Darby Ray from the Harward Center invited us to consider participating in PROFESSORS TO THE POLLS. This will only take 30 minutes of your time but could help your students develop a lifelong habit of democratic participation through voting.
Here’s how it works:
1) You find a 30-minute block of time this coming Tuesday when you will walk from your office to the polling location at the Lewiston Armory, a mere two blocks from campus on Central Avenue. (For those with mobility issues, consider teaming up with a colleague who will do the walking.)
2) You invite your students — any who are eligible to vote but who haven’t done so by Tuesday — to join you at that time to walk to the polls.
3) When you invite your students to join you, share with them this link to the non-partisan 2022 Bates Voter Guide so they can plan their ballot. Remind them that if they are not yet registered to vote in Maine, they need to bring their Bates ID and the last four digits of their social security number so they can register at the polling location.
4) If any students show up, you (or your faculty partner) walk with them from your office to the Armory at the designated time and thank them for their “informed civic action.” You do not need to wait with them once they’re at the polling location. (Note: Even if no one shows up at your designated time, you have still done your students an important service by conveying the importance of voting. Your encouragement may spur them to cast their ballot at a different time that day.)
ARE YOU GAME? Let us know asap, and we’ll deliver a BatesVotes t-shirt to your office on Monday so you can wear it on Tuesday.
Kristin Cloutier from the Harward Center would like to draw your attention to how good our Community Liaisons from Bates clubs, sport teams, and first year centers have been at getting their groups to do amazing community-engaged work! Read more here.
Steve Engel from the Dean of Faculty’s Office wrote with information regarding advising students.
To Lift the Advising Hold. To lift a student’s Advising Hold, log into Garnet Gateway, click on Advisees-Current, and you will see a button that says “Remove Winter 2023 Hold.” Just click on it to lift the Hold.
Resources for Advising. To support you in your work as advisors, please see all of the resources on the new Academic Advising Portal. There is a How-To-Register video at that portal (and that video is also on the Student Advising Portal. Also, there are email templates for each class cohort that you can use to communicate with your advisees; these email templates contain important information and links and enable consistent information to go out to students.
In addition, please see the email he sent last week, which includes a reminder about the new crosslisting policy. It contained explanatory information about how students should read seat capacity/availability for crosslisted courses on the Course Schedule. It also referenced where this information was relayed in the 6-minute “How-To-Register” Video, and it contained an infographic that shows where the information on seat capacity was on the Course Schedule.
Finally, the last Advising Workshop of the semester is coming up. On November 9, the team from Student Financial Services will lead a workshop on financial resources and financial aid for our students. The workshop is at Noon in Commons 221; you can bill your lunch to DOF, go through the line at Commons, and bring your lunch upstairs to the workshop. As always, the workshop will be recorded, and the recording and any corresponding will be posted to the Academic Advising Portal.
A recording of last week’s Advising Workshop, which addressed how academic advisors can support students in their exploration of global education (study abroad/off-campus study) opportunities at Bates, is now available to be viewed on the Academic Advising Portal. Supplemental materials (a PDF of powerpoint slides) are also available within the drop-down that details the full series of workshops.
Jessica Fournier in Human Resources invited us to join them in Commons on Monday, November 21st from 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. for a Faculty/Staff Chili Cook-off! This event will be open to faculty and staff at no cost and Commons will be taking advantage of this community culinary moment to ” Free the Fridge”.
Interested in entering a chili into the contest? Please CLICK HERE to sign up. Before signing up, here is an overview of the rules:
- Those interested in participating must sign up by Monday, November 14th by Noon. Space is limited so sign up early!
- Participants will be expected to make 2-3 gallons of chili. To assist with the cost, contestants will be reimbursed up to $60.00 – receipts will be required.
- Before the event participants will be provided with a disposable pan in which their entry must be placed; no crock pots will be used to serve chili.
- Participants must provide a list of ingredients used by Friday, November 18th. Please send a list of ingredients to Michelle Lewis at mlewist@bates.edu.
- On the day of the event, participants will be required to drop off their entry in the pan provided between
- Judging for the contest will take place between 10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
- Winning categories are: Best Chili, People’s Choice, and Most Creative
Whether you plan to enter your famous chili recipe in the contest, or you simply plan to enjoy a great meal, we hope to see you there on Monday, November 21st for what we hope can become a new yearly tradition.
Lindsey Hamilton from the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning shared the Center’s November newsletter which also can be found on the CITL website.
Next, upcoming events.
Upcoming CITL Events:
(LAVA = Lecturers, Assistants in Instruction, Visiting Professors, and Applied Faculty)
Tuesday, November 15th, 12-1 pm, Commons 211
Tuesday, November 29th, 12-1 pm, Commons 211
Student Evaluation of Teaching Workshop Series Part 1
Thursday, November 10th, 4:15-5:30 pm, Dana 219
Guilt-Free Book Club: Inclusive Teaching Ch 1 and 2 discussion
Tuesday, Nov 15th, 8-9 am OR 4:15-5:15 pm, Dana 216
On the Menu: Inclusive Group Work
Wednesday, November 30th, 12-1 pm, Commons 221
A Group for Compassionate Grieving
Monday, November 7
4:15-5:15
163 Wood St.
Please sign-up here.
Facilitated by Brittany Longsdorf and Raymond Clothier
Healthy Substance Use Group
every Thursday – 11:30-12:30
Commons 211
Looking for a supportive space to talk about your relationship with substances and have regular thoughtful check-ins? Professor Stephanie Kelley-Romano (SKR), Bates Health Services, and the Multifaith Chaplaincy are holding a Healthy Substance Use Group once a week. Faculty, staff, and students are all welcome. Drop in for any amount of time you can. Whether you are in recovery or simply looking to redefine your relationship with substances, feel very welcome to come and join this warm community as you process!
Ananya Dance Theatre’s Dastak: I Wish You Me
November 7 at 7:30pm
Schaeffer Theatre
Please join the Bates Dance Festival and the Department of Theater and Dance for our presentation. You can learn more about Ananya, her work, and her new book Dancing Transnational Feminisms: Ananya Dance Theatre and the Art of Social Justice here. She will be in residency with Dance for two weeks following this performance. Tickets for Dastak are pay what you wish, $25 or $5. Bates students get free admission with their ID but we ask that they reserve in advance. All tickets and reservations can be booked here.
Breaking into Games: An Open Conversation with
Rebeccah Bassell ‘16, Producer at Bethesda Studios
November 9 – 3:00-4:15
Carnegie 225
Explore Pathways into the Videogame Industry & Enjoy Coffee, Cookies, and Conversation
Sponsored by the Anthropology Department, the Digital and Computational Studies Program,
the Learning Associates Program, and the Center for Purposeful Work
2022 Miles and Katharine Culbertson Prentice Distinguished Lecture
Thursday, November 10th at 5:00 p.m.
livestream from Colby College)
Oscar Santillán will speak about his practice and introduce the research and work that he will be doing at Colby College during the 2022–23 academic year. Oscar Santillán is a 2022–23 Lunder Institute Senior Fellow, in partnership with Colby’s Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence. The Ecuadorean artist, who resides in the Netherlands, works across the fields of artificial intelligence, performance, sculpture, anthropology, Indigenous studies, geography, biology, and critical theory.
“New Racial Narratives in the Age of Ancestry DNA”
Thursday, November 10th
Pettengill Hall G52 – 7:30 pm
All are Welcome! Brought to you by the Department of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies, the Program in Africana, and the Bates Learning Associates Program
“Being Black in White Space,”
November 10 at 4:15 (online lecture)
Professor Elijah Anderson. Register at https://elijah-anderson-bates.eventbrite.com
Writer Alan Heathcock
Thursday, November 10th 7:00 – 8:00pm
PGILL G52
FMI contact Myron Hardy.
A centering moment led by The Multifaith Chaplaincy
Veterans Day, November 11, at 9 a.m.
Bates Veterans Plaza
Together we will hear reflective readings and interfaith prayers, observe silence, and share in the ritual of laying stones of remembrance on the memorial. A basket of stones will be left at the foot of the memorial from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. if you would like to have a quiet private moment to lay a stone at any point in the day. Everyone of any spiritual tradition or secular tradition, veterans, friends and family of veterans, alumni, and all are welcome to participate in this event.
Bates College Choir – ‘At the Water’s Edge’
Sunday, November 13th, 2022 at 3:00 pm
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bates-college-choir-tickets-425253182717
STUDENT EVALUATION OF TEACHING
Thursday, November 10, 2022
4:15-5:30 pm – Dana 219
This is the first part of a CITL workshop series on student evaluations of teaching. This first session will center around talking with students about evaluations before they complete them. CITL will provide a summary of the research on bias in student evaluations and then share practical tips and suggestions for how to elicit better feedback from students before they fill them out this semester. Snacks will be provided. The second workshop in the series next semester will focus on interpreting student feedback in evaluations.
Beer Science Night at Baxter
Wednesday, November 16th
5:30-6:30 pm or 7:00-8:00 pm.
Grace Wenger ’24 will present her research that she conducted alongside Merritt Waldron (Quality Director at Baxter Brewing) and our own Dr. Lori Banks (Assistant Professor of Biology) this past summer. You will learn how iso-alpha acids (IBUs) are measured, its implications on beer flavor, and updates on how this information is being used! There is an optional purchase of a $10 ticket for a guided flight tasting upon arrival. For more information and to register (required), click here.
Purposeful Work
2022 Harvest Meal and Trashion Show
Wednesday November 16th – 4:30p-8:30p
in Commons and the Gray Cage.
The event will be open to faculty, staff and their immediate families. Harvest Meal Tickets will be available for purchase in the Mays Center Monday through Friday through the 16th from 10:30a-2:30p. Adult tickets are $15.00, children from 6 to 12 are $8.00 and children under 6 are free. If you are planning on attending, please buy your tickets in advance as they will not be available at the door.